Rating: 
Summary: Very Good performances by all
Review: On an earth over taken by mysterious alien beings the remainers of humanity. The scientists and the military are divided into opposite camps over what to do in this situation. Overal-It is a great film, if it had followed the game in the slightest it would get five stars, still it is a very good movie especally by Alec Baldwin.
Rating: 
Summary: Very lame
Review: First of all, I never followed the Final Fantasy games, so I don't care that this has nothing to do with the game. OK, here's the story in a nutshell: An asteroid carrying phantoms crashes on Earth. The phantoms devour the "spirit energy," a.k.a. life force of all living things. Years later, the only life left on Earth is in domed cities. Mankind has managed to develop a super cannon strong enough to destroy the phantoms' hive, (and assumably all phantoms), but the catch is that the cannon may be so strong that it also destroys the Earth's spirit, a.k.a. Gaia. That is, if the Earth's Gaia even exists, which isn't a certainty for most of the movie. Through the course of events, our heroine, Dr. Aki Ross, discovers that the asteroid is part of an alien planet that exploded, and the phantoms aren't invaders. They're ghosts of the aliens that died, and they're just "confused, lost, and angry." Yep. They're just confused ghosts that eat souls and have destroyed almost all life on Earth. (Aren't you glad our Earthly ghosts only scare us?) Furthermore, it turns out that the super cannon only awakens the alien Gaia and makes it stronger. If that weren't enough, even though numerous shots only make it stronger, 2 shots miss it and hit the Earth's Gaia, which hurts our Gaia. So, let me get this straight: Ghosts eat souls, and the same ammo that kills alien phantoms, makes the alien Gaia stronger, but hurts the Earth's Gaia? Yep. That's what they want you to buy. But the action's great, right? Well, not exactly. While there is a lot of action, all of it is humans running away from the phantoms, shooting as they retreat. There are no big climaxes. I was constantly waiting for the good part. Not even the ending felt climactic. The super cannon fired, but nothing much happens. They have to fire it several times to get a reaction. The alien Gaia just ate the guy with the key to destroying it. I guess it's going to die now, right? Hmmm...nothing happened. Oh wait, now it's dying. OK, it's dead now. We're going to see people shouting and celebrating, right? No? Just an eagle flying overhead? That's it!? Even the death of the psycho general is ho-hum. What about all those extra features? They are also very weak. The audio commentary was only mildly interesting. The "factoids" that pop up while the movie's playing turn out to be just another commentary--a downright inane conversation actually. One guy doesn't seem to know anything about the movie. He doesn't even grasp the obvious, like the flares don't hurt phantoms. They just make them visible. He even had to ask what the domes over the city was for! The other guy would just say stuff like "This was a hard scene to shoot," but wouldn't say why, or "This shot looks really good." He did mention technical stuff like global lighting, key lights, and DRC, but doesn't say what they are. So you won't learn much at all. You won't even learn much from the "making of" documentary. (If you want to learn about the making of a CGI movie, listen to the audio commentary in "Shrek". That's very informative.)
Very lame. Even if you buy into the whole "Earth has a spirit that our spirits return to" theory, it's still very poorly written. Want more proof? The last line of the movie, which is also the only thing said after the alien Gaia is destroyed, is this: "Oh, it's warm."
Rating: 
Summary: Great, despite Baldwin
Review: Okay, Alec Baldwin annoys me, but this is a fantastic movie despite him. While I'm a huge Lord of the Rings fan, this movie should have won special effects hands down, and should have won the Oscar for animated feature. The movie has little (nothing?) to do with the video game franchise, and that helped to let the movie stand on its own as a work of art. Not a kids movie, since it's a bit frightening in parts, my 10-year-old has seen it nonetheless. The story and characters are well developed, and James Woods can do no wrong as a villian.
Rating:
Summary: Too intelligent for most American audiences
Review: The reason this movie bombed is because Americans generally don't know what a good movie is. Time after time I'll see a movie, which is a masterpiece, get trampled over by some brain dead teen horror or comedy (ie. The Scorpion King). The so-called fans of the 'Final Fantasy' games fail to understand that each game is completely different from the other. So what if this movie is set on earth? It's never been done before in a FF game. So what if there's nobody carrying a giant sword? Stop nit-picking and take this movie for what it is and that is a great movie with a very original plot. When's the last time you've seen a movie where aliens destroyed their own planet and crashed landed on earth and their angry spirits haunt all the life on this planet? Never. The animation is wonderful. It's never been done before in a movie and yet NO Academy Award nomination. Where is the justice????
Rating: 
Summary: FF movie needs little thing called A STORY!!!!!!
Review: I really like sci-fi, I really like special effects and animation, I really like japanese story telling.
But I would much rather watch a good movie with a good story, (like Shawshank Redemption) that had zero special effects than watch a joyless demo reel of CG...
If they had put even 10% of the energy they put into realistic skin, towards developing an interesting story they might have had a winner.
Instead, what we get is set pieces they want to show off so they try to write some numb-knuckled story that will somehow thread it all together.
In the end it fails to register any emotion at all. And with the same money they could have made two or three REAL movies that might have actually told a story.
Want to see a good sci-fi story that is lean and well-crafted?... Go watch Gattaca.
Rating:
Summary: I loved this movie,
Review: I loved this movie, and I don't really like animation. For instance, the animation in Titan AE annoyed me. I felt like I was watching a Disney movie. But the computer-generated images in Final Fantasy-the Spirits Within was excellent. I liked the story-line, very few holes. Science fiction at its best.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent sci-fi movie, but alas, it was misnamed...
Review: Well, I just finished watching this film for my second time on DVD. The first time I saw it was when it was first released in theaters. I was excited that they had finally produced a "Final Fantasy" film. Paying my $8, I marched into the theater full of jubilant expectations. Hours later, when the film was over, I emerged extremely dissappointed. Allow me to explain why as to why I was dissappointed the first time. This film had nothing to do with "Final Fantasy". Sure, great CG but still, it wasn't a "Final Fantasy" film. Where were the chocobos, the summonings, the swords, the magic, etc.? Even "Final Fantasy VIII" had these, and it's the most "modern" Final Fantasy to date with respects to technology. I was glad this movie failed. It serves them right for trying to give us that as "Final Fantasy". Trying to cash in on the FF franchise, that's all. Don't pee on my back and tell me it's raining, Square. So why'd I give it five stars if I hated the film so much? I had a change of heart, to be quite honest. I decided to give the film one more chance, this time I'd appreciate it for its own merits so I sat down and watched it again on DVD. I promised myself that as I watched it, I wouldn't compare it to other "Final Fantasies". Standing on its own, this film is an incredible sci-fi motion picture. I truly enjoyed it when I viewed it as just a sci-fi film. The effects were top notch and the voice acting was well done. I have no complaints about it except that it's not a "Final Fantasy". This film could have been called "Harry Potter and the Spirits Within" or "Sister Act and the Spirits Within" and those titles would have had as much to do with this movie as did the title "Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within". I mean, come on, Dr. Sid was the only thing that connected this film to the "Final Fantasy" series and they even changed the spelling from "Cid", as it is in the games, to "Sid". So in that sense, it still had nothing to do with the video games. Now if they'd only make a sequel and make it a true FF film....
Rating: 
Summary: Good movie though not Final Fantasy
Review: The animation is great, and the story line is okay, but this isn't Final Fantasy. Die hard Final Fantasy fans will be highly dissapointed with the lack of any actual reference to anything in the popular RPG's. The only consistant thing is CID, but other than that it's completely different. There isn't one spell cast, no potions, and no Pheonix Downs. The monsters were basically all the same thing, some form of evil spirit. Where's the Flan? or the Bohemoth? At least give me one Ochu. Not a bad fantasy but certainly no Final Fantasy.
Rating:
Summary: Very realistic
Review: The plot is very thin. It is about these phantoms that have invaded the earth and the attenpt to get rid of them. It is based on the video game of the same name. The real star of the movie is the animation. The characters are almost real. It is very hard to distinquish between these characters and real humans. Final fantasy is the most realistic computer animation movie to date.
Rating:
Summary: best animated movie ever.
Review: I have to honestly say this movie is fun to watch. I have seen it 8 times and it dosen't let up. My father who is not a fan of movies like this sat down and watched some of it and said it was good. He didn't watch all of it because he had to make supper. the special features on this are slim but if you don't care about special features buy this el cheapo version out of the 2 dvd versions. It's fun to watch and will keep you thrilled until the end.
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